TAINAN, Taiwan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--It has always been the dreams of many students to launch rockets, build unmanned aircrafts and fire detecting instruments in space to obtain ground images from the air, but only a few specialized organizations can develop sounding rockets and participate in satellite missions and students often lack opportunities to explore the space.
Assistant Prof. Alfred B. Chen from Institute of Space, Astrophysical and Plasma Sciences at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, has developed a sounding balloon, which has successfully risen aloft in National Tung Kang Maritime and Fishery Vocational High School, Pingtung County, and obtained data of more than 600 photos.
NCKU Institute of Space, Astrophysical and Plasma Sciences and NCKU Plasma and Space Science Center have contributed to the development of sophisticated space scientific instruments for the instruments to apply on research fields, such as space plasma science and atmospheric electricity.
Due to Taiwan’s relatively scarce sounding rockets and satellite missions, teachers and students from NCKU Institute of Space, Astrophysical and Plasma Sciences and NCKU Plasma and Space Science Center have put in efforts to develop a low-cost sounding balloon for the purposes of early equipment testing, validation and personnel training.
NCKU Assistant Prof. Alfred B. Chen and his twelve students have developed a sounding balloon to engage in high-altitude instrument experiments, and they have participated in the takeoff of the sounding balloon at National Tung Kang Maritime and Fishery Vocational High School, Pingtung County.
“The sounding balloon developed by National Cheng Kung University consists of three parts, the balloon, parachute and scientific instruments, which include a re-equipped digital camera and a set of electronic thermometers. When the balloon is filled with helium, it can carry the parachute and radiosonde aloft,” explained by Assistant Prof. Alfred B. Chen.
Experimenting in National Tung Kang Maritime and Fishery Vocational High School, Pingtung County, the sounding balloon lasted 70 minutes from take-off to landing, traveled about 64 km and reached an altitude of 21 km, which is twice the altitude of regular aircrafts.
Assistant Prof. Alfred B. Chen expressed, “In comparison to sounding rockets and artificial satellites, the sounding balloons have advantages of higher security, lower experiment cost, higher mobilization and shorter mission cycle. Commercial sounding balloons, which carry 1 kg to 2 kg instruments, can reach an altitude of 20 km to 25 km, engage in experiment for one to two hours and successfully return with data.”
Assistant Prof. Alfred B. Chen also mentioned, “Because the total flight cost, including the balloon, parachute, electronic system, scientific instruments and helium, is less than NT$20,000, the sounding balloon experiment can be used as a platform of testing and teaching training.”
Under the joint efforts of NCKU teachers and students, the self-developed sounding balloon took only four months from beginning to completion and the experiment was very successful.
In the future, the low-cost sounding balloons, which can carry instruments aloft, can apply to the development of various sophisticated micro-space scientific instruments and can capture ground images in larger scope to support disaster prevention.